Very good point about woman as an adjective Danny.  To draw from 
Seinfeld, there is an episode where Jerry dates a beautiful woman who 
has only  one flaw - "man hands" (not male hands).  I think using male 
or female as an adjective is generally quite neutral.  It merely refers 
to the biological makeup of a person.  But referring to someone as a 
man or woman says something about their personality and many other 
traits.  I know this to be the case in sociolinguistics.  Male or 
female refers to sex.  Woman or man refers to gender, which is much 
more complicated than sex.
In the Seinfeld example, "man hands" is clearly derogatory, and "woman 
governor" is also saying much more than the fact that that the governor 
is female.  It may be pointing out the fact  that having a female 
governor is rare, or perhaps even drawing into questions whether a 
female governor can be as good as a male.
In summary, I agree Danny.  This is not a good phrase, and it should be 
avoided.

Rob

On Oct 27, 2005, at 4:18 PM, Daniel Reeves wrote:

> Looks like our lively debate about feminism was not the only thing set 
> off by that New York Times article...
>
> Btw, am I the only to whom "woman" or "women" used as an adjective is 
> like fingernails on a blackboard?  Like "woman governor"?  Could our 
> resident linguist comment on this?  Is it new?  It sounds utterly 
> wrong to my ear. But I suppose what really bothers me about it is that 
> it's not symmetric. You can't say "man governor".  (Or even "man 
> nurse".)
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 15:28:41 -0400
> To: Lyris Announcement List  
> From: blaack Æ umich.edu
> Subject: [awis-um] Fwd: Work/Life Panel Discussion
>
> In response to the NYTimes article attached -- indicating that college 
> women are increasingly skeptical about their ability or desire to 
> combine work lives with family lives--Women's Studies, IRWG, WISE and 
> ADVANCE have collaborated to put together a panel of women speakers 
> who have a range of personal and work lives. Our hope is to highlight 
> the many different ways that contemporary women can and do in fact 
> combine work and personal life successfully. The panel is aimed at 
> undergraduate students, so I'm hoping you'll bring it to your 
> students' attention. The flyer is attached, as are brief bios about 
> the panelists and our special guest moderator.
>
> --Abby Stewart
>
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----  article.doc>